The struggle for women’s rights in Togo

In the authoritarian and cheerless world of Gnassingbe Eyadema’s Togo, women are organising to assert their rights and developing strategies to combat the discrimination they face. But despite some progress in legislative terms, they still have far to go.

by Florence Santos Da Silva

Too many Togolese women are “illegals”, living without formal family records, identity cards or birth certificates, and thus not eligible for the protections provided by citizenship and the law. The Togolese constitution does, however, provide for male/female equality, and the country did (...)